hangeful existence by abandoning the life
of the home. Let us light again the flame put out on our hearths, make
sanctuaries for ourselves, warm nests where the children may grow into
men, where love may find privacy, old age repose, prayer an altar, and
the fatherland a cult!

XI

SIMPLE BEAUTY

Someone may protest against the nature of the simple life in the name of
esthetics, or oppose to ours the theory of the service of luxury--that
providence of business, fostering mother of arts, and grace of civilized
society. We shall try, briefly, to anticipate these objections.

It will no doubt have been evident that the spirit which animates these
pages is not utilitarian. It would be an error to suppose that the
simplicity we seek has anything in common with that which misers impose
upon themselves through cupidity, or narrow-minded people through false
austerity. To the former the simple life is the one that costs least; to
the latter it is a flat and colorless existence, whose merit lies in
depriving one's self of everything bright, smiling, seductive.

It displeases us not a whit that people of large means should put their
fortune into circulation instead of hoarding it, so giving life to
commerce and the fine arts. That is using one's privileges to good
advantage. What we would combat is foolish prodigality, the selfish use
of wealth, and above all the quest of the superfluous on the part of
those who have the greatest need of taking thought for the necessary.
The lavishness of a Maecenas could not have the same effect in a society
as that of a common spendthrift who astonishes his contemporaries by the
magnificence of his life and the folly of his waste. In these two cases
the same term means very different things--to scatter money broadcast
does not say it all; there are ways of doing it which ennoble men, and
others which degrade them. Besides, to scatter money supposes that one
is well provided with it. When the love of sumptuous living takes
possession of those whose means are limited, the matter becomes
strangely altered. And a very striking characteristic of our time is
the rage for scattering broadcast which the very people have who ought
to husband their resources. Munificence is a benefit to society, that we
grant willingly. Let us even allow that the prodigality of certain rich
men is a safety-valve for the escape of the superabundant: we shall not
attempt to gainsay it. Our contention is that t